With Ukrainian forces entering the main city of Kherson in the south of the country after the completion of the Russian withdrawal from it, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, confirmed that his country had not yet used its full arsenal.
Medvedev added – in a post on the Telegram platform today, Saturday – that Russia “did not bomb all possible enemy targets,” and said that “everything is on time.”
The senior Russian official believed that Russia is building an “equal world order” for the future, and that it is struggling alone against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the West.
Apparently referring to the developments in Kherson, Medvedev said that it is Russia that protects its citizens and that it restores Russian lands and not vice versa, reiterating Moscow’s position that Kherson, Donetsk, Lugansk and Zaporozhye provinces are within Russia’s territory.
For his part, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force warned of possible Russian missile and air attacks on large areas of the country.
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Meanwhile, the Ukrainian General Intelligence Department announced the return of Kherson to the control of Ukraine, and said in a statement that units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and reconnaissance battalions had entered the city.
In its statement, the Intelligence Department called on the remaining Russians in the city to surrender.
Pictures from inside the city of Kherson showed the Ukrainian flags hoisted on government buildings in the city, and Ukrainian military sources told Al-Jazeera that the entire Mykolaiv countryside had been controlled, and that the reconnaissance battalions were advancing cautiously towards Chorna Bayvka Airport, near the city of Kherson.
The Ukrainian national anthem was played in Kherson after the withdrawal of Russian forces yesterday, Friday, from the city, and Kherson was the first city to fall at the beginning of the Russian war on Ukraine last February.
A source in the office of the head of the regional military administration in Kherson told Al-Jazeera that the authorities had begun stabilization measures in the province, and that demining work in the liberated countryside had already begun.
History day
In his daily speech on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky considered the restoration of the city a “historic day,” saying that special military forces had become inside the southern city of Kherson after Russia announced the withdrawal of its forces from it. .
“Currently our defenders are on the outskirts of the city, but special military forces are present in the city,” he said.
On the other hand, the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Southern Operations Command Natalia Homenyuk said that her country’s forces discovered Russian tanks, artillery and other equipment in the lands retaken in the south after the Russians failed to cross the Dnipro River during the withdrawal.
Hominyuk added that the equipment there was left in a mess, and that the Ukrainian army was collecting what it needed to use it in the counterattack.
Hominiuk also confirmed that the Russians planted large areas of the land they left with mines, so returning to the liberated lands is still fraught with dangers, as she put it.
Satellite images showed damage to a number of bridges in the Kherson region.
The photos show the damage to the Antonovsky Bridge on the Dnipro River, a railway bridge after the withdrawal of Russian forces to the eastern bank of the river, in addition to the damage to the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station.
temporary capital
For its part, the pro-Russian authorities in Kherson Province announced that the city of Geneshesk would be the temporary capital in the province, instead of the city of Kherson, from which the Russian army withdrew on Friday.
Geneshesk is one of the largest cities in Kherson Province, located to the south on the Sea of Azov, about 200 km from Kherson, the capital.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that the decision to withdraw from Kherson was taken in the corridors of the Russian Defense Ministry, stressing in a statement that there has been no change in Moscow’s position regarding Kherson Province as part of Russian territory.
The Russian army announced the withdrawal of more than 30 thousand Russian soldiers from the Kherson region, leaving the western bank of the Dnipro River to deploy on its eastern bank.
The Russian Defense Ministry indicated – in a statement – that “more than 30,000 Russian soldiers and about 5,000 armament units and military vehicles have been withdrawn” from the western bank of the river.
Fierce battles
Meanwhile, the eastern front in Ukraine is witnessing successive field developments, as the Ukrainian and Russian forces exchanged declarations of repelling attacks in several axes.
In Donetsk Province, the Ukrainian General Staff stated that it had repelled 8 attempts to advance Russian forces on the fighting axes, including the Pervomaisk axis.
On the other hand, the pro-Russian separatists said that they are continuing to advance on the axis of Donetsk International Airport, and that they are on the verge of seizing the town of Pervomaisk, northwest of the province.
In Lugansk, the Ukrainian governor of the province said that Ukrainian forces have regained control of 11 towns since last September, and that they are still advancing, but slowly because of mines planted by Russian forces.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces repelled 4 Ukrainian attacks in the direction of Krasno-Liman, which led to the killing of more than 190 Ukrainian soldiers and the damage of a number of vehicles.
The ministry also stated that the Russian army had thwarted Ukrainian attempts to advance on the Kobyansk axis, and had left more than 160 dead and wounded among the attackers.
The ministry also announced the downing of a Mi-8 helicopter of the Ukrainian forces in the Zaporozhye region in southern Ukraine. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that ammunition depots belonging to the Ukrainian forces were destroyed in Zaporozhye, as well as in Kharkiv (northeastern Ukraine).
Israeli mechanisms
On the other hand, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported monitoring Israeli-made armored military vehicles in the service of the Ukrainian forces in the Kherson region in the south of the country, in conjunction with a statement by a Ukrainian official in which he expected a strategic shift with the arrival of Benjamin Netanyahu to head the Israeli government.
The website of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, quoting a Twitter account concerned with weapons and equipment used in the current war, published pictures of “Amir” vehicles produced by the private Israeli company “Gaya”.
The account indicated that this is the first time that the Ukrainian army has been seen using Israeli-made vehicles.
Since the start of the war, Ukraine has been trying to persuade Israel to provide it with an air defense system known as the Iron Dome, but Yair Lapid’s government has refrained from doing so for fear of angering Russia.
However, The Wall Street Journal quoted the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel Yevgen Cornichuk as saying that he believed that a strategic shift was looming with Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power.
The Ukrainian ambassador stated that Netanyahu would consider providing more military support to Ukraine, and believed that the military cooperation between Iran and Russia was pushing Israel to closer cooperation with Kyiv against a common enemy.
However, The Wall Street Journal quoted the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel Yevgen Cornichuk as saying that he believed that a strategic shift was looming with Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power.
The Ukrainian ambassador stated that Netanyahu would consider providing more military support to Ukraine, and believed that the military cooperation between Iran and Russia was pushing Israel to closer cooperation with Kyiv against a common enemy.
On the other hand, the newspaper quoted Israeli officials as concerned about sending weapons to Ukraine, fearing that it would hinder the hotline that Israel arranged with the Russians in Syria, which allows Tel Aviv to launch strikes against the Iranian presence there while avoiding inflicting losses on Russia.
